Beyond the CEE ‘black box’: crisis and industrial relations in the new EU member states

This working paper maps out developments of industrial relations in Central-Eastern Europe (CEE) during the period 2008-2014. It looks at wage trends and public sector austerity measures, collective bargaining practices, social dialogue performance and the incidence of strikes and protests.

The paper concludes that the crisis posed tough challenges for CEE industrial relations and collective bargaining systems but it also detects space for 'new innovative forms of resistance to austerity and the neoliberal reform course'. It therefore questions the CEE labour weakness thesis and challenges the gloomy vision of the convergence of CEE industrial relations towards the lowest common denominator.